The Life Cycle of a Breached Database
Summary: Krebs on Security describes how breached user databases are cracked, tested for password reuse, and resold before victims are notified, with Emsisoft CTO Fabian Wosar saying a crypto-mining rig can break 60-70 percent of MD5-hashed passwords in a day or two. The article cites the classicfootballshirts.co.uk cash-back phishing campaign and Ledger's December 2020 disclosure of 272,000 customer records, which Unit221B's Allison Nixon linked to a preceding spike in SIM-swapping attacks.
Bottom line: Ledger's data was likely stolen in June 2020 but disclosed in December, giving attackers roughly six months to run targeted attacks, and Nixon found 100 percent of the SIM-swapping victims she examined were in the Ledger database.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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